Please, Hold the Hollows
by Shadow Coyote
Summary: Once again, Light gets an unpleasant surprise because of Ryuk.


Author's notes: I wrote this several years ago, and thought I might as well post it here after slight edits. I have to admit, I still want to rewrite this into a longer story, but I'd have to figure out how to blend the two canons and whether I should have the Bleach cast show up.

Warning: Unashamedly AU; fusion with Bleach and Death Note. (Previous notes)

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><p>It was a glorious, beautiful day. And Light Yagami felt increasingly edgy. This was not a condition he appreciated.<p>

When Light had woken up earlier that day, he had been unpleasantly surprised by Ryuk lurking over his bed and had had a death god dogging his steps closer than usual. Refusing to show any reaction he had, after the first glare, continued on through his day.

And now he was currently sitting at a café and ignoring Ryuk who was hovering over him. Again. Light could feel his jaw clenching as he pretended to unwind while reading the newspaper. But the usual pleasure he gained from reading about his handiwork was refusing to appear as, in its place, speculation about the behavior of the usually obnoxiously confident shinigami stubbornly wandered in. He casually flipped through the sections while studying Ryuk's actions. Even if he hadn't been clued in by the shinigami's hovering, there definitely was an almost furtive air around Ryuk. Even as he watched, Ryuk shifted and wandered almost anxiously. It was in fact, subtle (except for the incident in the morning when he had loomed over his bed), but he had become familiar enough with Ryuk to see his behavior as exaggerated.

It took almost an hour before he could admit defeat, even in the privacy of his mind. "Someone would almost think you're afraid of something," he said caustically, taking care to give the impression of murmuring about something in the paper.

Ryuk glanced over as he gave that obnoxious laugh Light suspected he used merely to get on his nerves. "Heh, go without asking for an apple every ten minutes and you ask how I am." He added, "I'd almost think you were worried about me."

Light's eyes narrowed in irritation.

Afterwards, as they left, the death god seemed to relax and back to his usual form of inserting unwanted commentary. Light was beginning to wish he hadn't brought it up. Movements a touch jerky with impatience, he did his best to ignore Ryuk until he found a small, and most importantly, empty park. Turning to snap at Ryuk, he had enough time to see a look of surprise on the death god's face before Light was jerked off his feet and thrown to the ground some distance away.

"What the hell-," he managed as Ryuk moved towards him.

"We better get moving Light, unless you want to get eaten," Ryuk said as he gazed anxiously at empty air.

At least, it _looked_ empty until he noticed a strange distortion, rather like a heat wave. As much as he'd have liked to argue, Light started moving, gasping slightly from pain, "Tell me what that was. Now."

"Basically there are a bunch of bad spirits that eat other spirits here. And move faster," Ryuk said anxiously.

Light nearly paused in his annoyance, "How concise. Why the hell did it hit me? And why aren't you taking 'care' of it."

"You were in the way. Can't you run a little faster?" Ryuk almost looked awkward, though it was hard to tell with his face. "Perhaps it might or might not have been - attracted to my energy. And I'm not the right sort of shinigami. I can't really fight them."

"…Is this perhaps the reason for your behavior all day?" he asked acidly, for the moment putting aside the last sentence.

"…Maybe. Watch where you go, you might catch the attention of one," he said, almost cringing, as he gazed around.

"Perhaps if _someone_ had actually said something earlier, we would not be in this situation!" Light snarled as he watched for the rippling of the air that seemed to indicate one of the 'bad spirits' was moving towards him.

Ryuk seemed to twitch, "I thought they were being taken care of. Besides, it's not really normal for this amount of Hollows to be-"

He was cut off when something heavy enough to raise dust landed in front of them. Light swore as he moved as fast as he could but he was still shaken from the first blow and gained another hit as Ryuk quickly shifted away. Grimly aware of the mortal danger, he tried to back away when a scream, so high pitched he automatically covered ears, began.

When the last of it echoed away he looked up slowly, only for shock to freeze him, as he stared numbly into to the eyes of L.

_ What…_


End file.
